While staying at the Honey Creek Resort hotel, we had free breakfast vouchers that we used here daily. The first day was a breakfast buffet while the other two mornings were made to order breakfasts. The buffet would have been $14/adult and $5/kid. It was not worth that! The only things I considered good were the French toast sticks, hashbrowns, and fruit. The eggs had no taste, and the sausage and bacon had an odd taste. Even our kids didn't eat anything except the fruit. The made to order breakfasts were better but still not great. I had a breakfast burrito the first day and an omelet the second. Our daughter had s'mores pancakes both days. My husband had the Country Bowl and Chicken Fried Steak. Our son would only eat fruit from the fruit plates. The food is expensive for the quality received. The service we had was good although it seemed to only be one person working each day for breakfast. We also ate the Thanksgiving buffet. They said they had 430ish reservations for it. When I heard that, I thought this must be good! Well, we weren't impressed. The turkey had a flavor we couldn't place. I found that I really only enjoyed the food they probably didn't make there like the salads, cheese, fruit, and desserts (pies and cakes). $25/adult was just too much for that meal! My advice is take your own food if you're staying there. read more

Yuck! Stopped for lunch before meeting with event planner. The patio area is dirty, with trash blowing. The landscaping is completely overgrown with weeds, as well as the flower planters. We are the only customers here. EVERY table is filled with dirty dishes, and being foraged by the birds. The staff is sitting in a booth chatting. Seriously! I lost my appetite before we ordered. The food was decent. I would highly discourage anyone from eating here. The restaurant needs a management change! read more

Terrible steak, lousy service. Such a shame this is in a nice hotel. Breakfast was okay. For a great steak, drive the 20 minutes into Albia and go to Bogies Steakhouse. read more

Well what can I say that everyone hasn't already? This place is god awful in every conceivable way. These poor schmucks couldn't get one thing right. After waiting for 25 minutes, we had to ask the waiter to come take our order. There was only one other table with people, who were already eating. After another 35 minutes our food came out. After that long you'd think it'd be good right? Wrong. This garbage is very clearly pretty frozen cheap crap that is cooked to death and sold at a high markup. After doing our best to eat the edible portions of our meal, I asked for the check as we were more than ready to leave. They guy couldn't even get that right! So after flagging him down and requesting to get my actual check, we were finally able to leave. Honestly, just do yourself a favor and drive to the McDonald's near by. read more

We showed up at 7 and The place was empty. The hostess sat us and there we sat for 15 minutes until the hostess came back again... we had several waitresses walk by us doing closing chores, but apparently no one wanted to wait on us. The hostess found someone to take us and the waitress took our full order. She never came back! We went up to the bar and picked up the drinks we ordered and then ordered our second round through the bartender! Very odd. Our waitress did bring out our food, but never came back again after that. We went to the bar and she was flagged down to bring our bill. All we've heard was how short staffed everything is by every staff member, but tonight was a matter of poor training and poor customer service. I had really thought Ron being involved would turn this place around, but it hasn't. There needs to be teamwork. The waitstaff needs to have zones instead of refusing to take tables in front of customers. Any staff that walks by should help each other out and at least take drink orders. There were servers walking past us just going back and forth to the kitchen with nothing all night. There was plenty of waitstaff. Empty tables around us were having ketchups filled while we sat waiting for someone to even make eye contact with us. read more

Prior reviews, I assume to be honest, convinced us to shy away from this restaurant. We had appetizers on Friday afternoon and breakfast on Sunday morning. The biggest flaw was not providing silverware and napkins before the food was served. We also had to prompt them for salt, pepper and ketchup both times. The food was very good and the staff was attentive. Their Saturday night menu looked impressive so we will try again on our net visit. Quick note - clean the ceiling fans on the patio and put out table clothes over the metal tables. read more

Update: we tried going to dinner tonight (because there are no other options onsite) and ended up leave by before anyone took our drink/food order- about 20min after we were sat. They were at maybe 10% capacity. Waitresses all super young and overheard another guest ask what kind of vodka they had and she had no clue-- yet their prices are very high like an upscale restaurant. read more

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Had dinner and ate outside. Service was lacking and food was meh. No kids menu. Nothing came out hot. Dessert was the best part, great and fast. You don't have much choice, the closest other restaurant option is 3 miles away but 15 minutes. The Buccaneer snack bar is a better bet. Onion rings had really thick batter, not good. Saw a family bring in pizza hut. I was a little jealous. read more

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Service was good. After that it went down hill fast. The mac and cheese was horrible. Two kids ordered it and both took one bite and push away the plate. The cottage cheese side had a funny taste for both adults who ordered it. The prime rib was cooked well done and very tough to eat. The only good dish was a salad with grilled fish. However the fish came fried instead of grilled. Going to give this a try for breakfast tomorrow. Hopefully they can't ruin fried or scrambled eggs and bacon. Fingers crossed. read more

Ordered eggs, hash browns, and english muffin for breakfast. Eggs were cold, hash browns were cold, and they gave me toast instead of the english muffin. I had the server take my food back to warm it up. When they brought it back was still cold. She took my toast brought out my muffin. It was the only thing I could eat. I had seen the reviews so thought I could maybe eat breakfast. I would not go back. We left the resort for every other meal we had. read more

Pork tenderloin was really good. Pizza was decent. Prices are a little high but it's expected at a resort.

Just finished a work assignment @ Honey Creek Resort & had a very good experience in the bar! Kudos to Tom & Frame...excellent bartenders & both very nice guys! read more

Spent 2 weekends working @ Honey Creek Resort and Tom & Frame the bartenders in the bar were absolutely awesome! Very pleasant, professional & fun to chat with every day after work! They both made my experience @ Honey Creek extremely enjoyable!!! Kudos to both! read more

It's never good when your daughter who orders Mac & Cheese everywhere, won't take a second bite of her meal here. Service was friendly but very very slow with only a few tables here. I walked out empty glasses to the bar to get refilled. Fairly expensive ($18 pasta) $72 total for 2 adults 2 kids meals. Mediocre food but it's the only game on the property. Captive audience. We did get two free deserts for the food prep wait, props to the manager. By reading previous reviews it's exactly what we expected. Expensive, slow and blah. Enjoyed the beer and desert the most. Feel bad writing a one star review because John the manager was very apologetic but it is what it is. read more

Rathbun Lakeshore Grille - Not the kids Mac and cheese she was expecting. - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Moravia, Iowa

Resort is great. Restaurants are mediocre. Overpriced, very slow service and mediocre quality food

One could rate the actual food at maybe a 3 but the service and cluelessness of the staff brought the overall to 1. Such a shame too since this is such a beautiful Lake and hotel is nice too. read more

Bottom line, horrific. Anything would be better. I get to see my family one time a year. My sister-in-law and I drove over two hours to enjoy the day with four nieces / nephews. It had stormed upon arrival so we decided to grab a bite to eat in the restaurant to wait out the storm as apparently the indoor water park is grounded such that any lightening closes the indoor water park as well. Three kids pizzas with a side of fries for each order, one kids chicken nuggets with fries, one burger with onion rings and one pork tenderloin with fries. It took well over 30 mins for the food to arrive. When it did, everything looked like it was prepackaged/frozen and very unappetizing. The waitress asked if there was anything else she could get, completely oblivious to one order completely missing, the chicken nuggets and no onion rings for the burger. When we pointed it out, she was surprised and blamed the kitchen staff - oh, they must have forgotten. The chicken nuggets did not arrive until we all finished our meal and the onion rings never arrived. It was the worst food slumming I've done in a long time - flat out gross. We all left feeling hungry and quasi-sick. The fries were minimal, soggy and luke-warm. They charged nearly $5 for each order of fries. The "chicken nuggets" also had black spots all over. There were only three other parties in the restaurant and over five employees walking around, so the lack of service and the serious delays, especially when nothing was fresh, was surprising. Bottom line, VERY expensive and VERY low food quality and service. read more

Waited 10 minutes at a table in the bar and NO ONE even acknowledged that we were there. I haven't been here in over a year because the service is always so bad but I decided to give them another chance. That's a mistake I wont make again. I would give them negative stars if I could. read more

First of all, the location is absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, the restaurant is very mismanaged. The few servers that were working were overwhelmed and poorly trained. I started by ordering a brandy old fashioned. The response I got was "I've bartended and I don't know what that is so I'm sure our two new bartenders won't know either." So I ordered a Stella from their bar menu but was told they were out. So I ordered a glass of wine. The wine was good but the glass was covered in finder/hand prints. The glass itself also had a pour line etched into it. I've never seen such a thing. I would expect a place like this to have a bit more class and just train the bartenders what a wine pour looks like. I ordered the chicken pot pie. It sounded good and I was told it was a good choice. It was not. It had no chicken in it from what I could tell and it was flavorless. We also ordered the stuffed chicken, shrimp and steak. The chicken was very dry and the shrimp didn't come with any cocktail sauce. We would have asked for some but our waitress was no where to be found. We had a hard time getting drink refills and eventually just asked for our bill. Once we got our bill the waitress never returned. We ended up paying our bill at the bar. This place has a lot of potential but it's clear that management needs to change. read more

My family and I ate here last night and we weren't that impressed. At 6pm there were only a few people in the restaurant which should have been the first sign of things to come. We stood at the check in desk forever because the lady seating guests was not a day short of 300 years old. Seriously, nursing home old. I was close to asking her if the management was holding her against her will. We sit and order and the item I was hoping to try, giant tenderloin, is no longer on the menu. I ordered the chicken pot pie, my wife had a burger, and the kids had spaghetti with meatballs. My pot pie was pretty decent. Looks way bigger than it actually is. Not a very deep bowl. My wife's burger was ok. She did say the sauce served with the fries was good. My kids basically ate the meatballs and didn't do much with the spaghetti. It was $43 which was on the expensive side for what we got. By being in the middle of nowhere and staying at the hotel you are stuck with eating here. I suppose this is what you get when the state DNR tries to run a restaurant. read more

Rathbun Lakeshore Grille - Chicken Pot Pie - Cajun/Creole Near Me - Moravia, Iowa

Nice atmosphere but lacking menu options, poor service, and poor management. Would expect much more for the price. I would not recommend or go back. read more

Resort, so somewhat captive for the restaurant. Service is TERRIBLE!!!!!! Seated 20 minutes ago, no wait staff has appeared yet.

Pour waitresses and long wait times only real upside was the chicken pot pie which was very good!

Awful experience from beginning to end. Food was mediocre, service was terrible, kitchen refused the one simple request we made, both bartenders appeared to be on their first day. Great views but will not be returning to this overpriced Applebees read more

We stayed at Honey Creek Lodge over the weekend of 11/10-11/12. Our first experience at lake shore grill was on Friday for dinner after we arrived. The restaurant maybe had 4 other tables. We had our drink order taken then other tables were sat after us and had ordered their food before we flagged someone down after almost 30 mins to take our food order. Our waiter was awful. The food took forever to come. Drinks were never refilled unless we found someone to ask. The next morning we decided to try again for breakfast since there isn't a continental breakfast. The buffet was not open, we were sat at the same table from the night before, none of the chairs/high chairs had been wiped down, there was disgusting food from the night before swept in a pile under our table and napkins leftover on the chairs. Our waiter this morning was much more​ efficient. The food is probably a 3 star but the staff/cleanliness was horrible. We ended up driving to Albia for dinner on Saturday and it was more than worth another dining experience at Lakeshore grill. Won't be back to eat here read more

Beautiful facility! We keep trying hoping they can finally knock it out of the ballpark with the restaurant...... but sadly disappointed again. Not as many choices available and seems over priced for the quality. Expect to see a notch above for the facility and price. Would love to see them use more local products onthe menu. Was glad to see Walleye and catfish were on the menu as those are the fish of Rathbun. Really miss the wild mushroom soup they once served. The presentation of food was very good and the waitress was very attentive. Pulling up to the facility and walking in you expect the "wow" to continue but sadly it falls short in the restaurant. If they could just push it up a notch, people would love to bring their friends and family out there. Right now I'm embarrassed to bring friends there to eat. Like I said the facility is beautiful but falls on its face with the food in the beautiful restaurant. I keep hoping they will get it together and really make a go of it. read more